![]("https://drscdn.500px.org/photo/167026553/m%3D900/ed507cfa3322a3ba2c14f8ef5d539d82")
!["2016-08-09-1470754704-4377696-outdoormediarepresentationheroes_h.jpg"]("http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-08-09-1470754704-4377696-outdoormediarepresentationheroes_h.jpg")
!["2016-08-09-1470754998-9351359-CoalitionwithJewell.jpg"]("http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-08-09-1470754998-9351359-CoalitionwithJewell.jpg")
!["2016-08-09-1470755480-8626565-Devin.jpg"]("http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-08-09-1470755480-8626565-Devin.jpg")
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
The death of a family pet is difficult, especially when you have to make the awful decision to put your pet down. When the time came for my family to make that decision last month, I was not expecting it to be as difficult for me as it was, and the moment we made it, shit got real — cue the Flo Rida song, “Going Down For Real” (too soon?).
If you have ever read anything I've written, or talked to me at any length, you will know I am not a proponent of extending life just because we can. Having been a critical care nurse for a short while, I have seen the suffering that is caused by doing “everything possible.” Animals are lucky; they are allowed to be humanely euthanized when they no longer enjoy any quality of life. As firm believers in this, my wife and I knew we had to make that difficult end-of-life decision for our dog. If it was me, I'd beg to be humanely put down, so please remember this post when my time comes!
Almost 15 years ago, my wife decided to surprise me with a puppy. She had been searching the pet adoption site, Petfinder.com, for months for the “perfect” dog, and she found her in Staten Island, NY. So, one brisk, clear weekend morning in October, with me sick with the flu, we drove 1.5 hours north from Philly to NY. When we pulled up, we spotted ourselves an adorable 9-week-old, fawn-colored pit bull puppy waddling along outside. It was love at first sight and a forever home for that puppy.
We spotted ourselves an adorable 9-week-old, fawn-colored pit bull puppy waddling along outside. It was love at first sight and a forever home for that puppy.
Like all excited new parents, we showed her off to everyone we could think of that day, going from place to place. We ended up at my in-law's house, where she was given the name Scout, after the character in Harper Lee's book, To Kill A Mockingbird (our daughter, born 10 years later was to be named Harper after Ms. Lee herself).
For the first few weeks we did nothing but sit on the floor with Scout for hours playing with her and loving on her. For us, she was the epitome of a perfect puppy. But we have a biased home when it comes to pit bulls. As anyone who has owned a pit bull can attest, they truly are the sweetest of dogs. Dating back to the 1900s, pit bulls were considered “nanny dogs,” due to their sweet temperament and intelligence. And our Scout was no exception!
Over the years Scout grew to become a 75-lb. lap dog who just wanted to be with her people. She loved to sit up front with us in the car, lay on top of us on the couch, and sleep between us in our bed! She was gentle to the point of complete passiveness with kids and people alike, she adored cats, and she loved the dogs who had grown up with her. The only time Scout ever growled at a person was when she sensed her people were in trouble and needed protecting. We had a visitor outstay their welcome in our home once and the situation became tense; Scout let the visitor know it was time to go! We were so proud of her and from then on we knew she would always protect us — as we would her!
When our daughter was born, the love affair between dog and child began. Scout and Harper loved each unconditionally from the time Harper was born until the day Scout passed. After Scout died, we went through our old photos. One after the other was of Harper and Scout — hugging each other in the car, in the back yard, on the couch, at the park — different locations, but same big smiles, same embrace, same unconditional love. They did this together for more than 10 years. The sweetest, most genuine of relationships: a girl and her dog. A dog and her girl.
Scout started visibly declining in November of last year, and then slowly over the following months she became less and less mobile and having more and more visits to the vet. Then finally, after a week of not eating, not going for walks, throwing up and having diarrhea, we came home one evening to find Scout sitting in a puddle of diarrhea, either unable to get up or unaware, or maybe a little of both. It was then we knew it was time.
We decided to euthanize Scout at home, in the place she knew and felt most safe. I called Lap of Love Hospice Care to come to the house that next day and do the deed. Not wanting Scout to be alone that night, I slept in the kitchen on the floor with her, wishing she would just die in her sleep.
It was the hardest decision of my adult life. But in the end, it was the best decision we could have made for Scout...
The next day she was visited, and utterly spoiled, by many of the people who knew her as a puppy and who loved her over the many years of her life. When 5 o'clock rolled around, and the fateful knock at the door came, I lost it — we all did! It was the hardest decision of my adult life. But in the end, it was the best decision we could have made for Scout, and as my sister stated on her Facebook page later that day: “Steak and potatoes and vanilla ice cream surrounded by friends and family, not a bad last day on earth! Love you Scout Dog!”
I wasn't expecting to be so emotional, and was completely caught off guard by the depth of sadness I felt in the hours and days following. After all, Scout lived a long, happy life and it was time. I pride myself on being a realist and understanding the doctrine of impermanence. I also have a pretty good grasp of the realities of life and death being a resuscitation scientist. But all of that was out the window, I was a hot mess! I missed her and that was all there was to it. I still do. It has taken me multiple tries to even write this post.
After Scout died and her body was taken away, we were sitting in our kitchen, looking out at our back yard through our sliding glass doors. A cardinal flew into our yard, sat for a moment and then flew away. My wife became quite excited — apparently seeing a cardinal is a sign of hope when someone dies... momentary solace for a bunch of skeptics!
When we are ready, our family has decided to foster shelter dogs instead of adopting, at least at first. In the U.S., approximately 2.4 million adoptable dogs (and cats) are put down every year, about one EVERY 13 seconds! Which means there are many dogs that need a good home and we have a good home that will always need a dog (or two)!
For now, we will remember our incredible dog Scout, knowing that she has gone over the Rainbow Bridge — a term I just learned during this ordeal taken from a poem of the same name — and as the poem says, “So long gone from [our] life but never absent from [our] heart[s].”
We love you Scout dog!
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
!["2016-08-05-1470434478-119685-Operating_theatre.jpg"]("http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-08-05-1470434478-119685-Operating_theatre.jpg")
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Science writer Ed Yong talks about his new book, which looks at diet and the microbiome and whether poop transplants and probiotics are all they're cracked up to be.
![]("https://media.npr.org/include/images/tracking/npr-rss-pixel.png?story=489171611"){kind=tracking}
Glowing meteors streaking across the night sky marks the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower which is expected to be an even more striking spectacle this year, thanks to Jupiter.…
Big Think | The Science Guy Big Think People already use automated trains, elevators, and most planes have some kind of autopilot system. In the more developed countries, that is. In less developed countries, the idea of robots taking over isn't nearly as scary. Outside of major cities ... and more » |
Times Higher Education (THE) (blog) | Four ways that artificial intelligence can benefit universities Times Higher Education (THE) (blog) We need AI systems that move beyond the machine learning and neural network techniques that dominate the work of the main AI protagonists within and beyond education, such as "robot tutor" Knewton and Google's game-playing algorithm, DeepMind. and more » |
And you thought we just made the gas. #EnergyLivesHere pic.twitter.com/4328aORwot
— ExxonMobil (@exxonmobil) August 5, 2016
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
You may know the caddis fly as a fishing lure. But bioengineers hunting a better way to seal wounds and set bones say the larvae of these insects have a few tricks we should try to mimic.
![]("http://67.media.tumblr.com/851e83dacd8bea2fff3fed657efb68d9/tumblr_obln1kdXzT1ry3nado1_500.jpg")
![]("http://66.media.tumblr.com/315257e057aee740fc67693169a77a45/tumblr_obln1kdXzT1ry3nado2_500.jpg")
![]("http://66.media.tumblr.com/053dafc32b0250841dee296184cd1d94/tumblr_obln1kdXzT1ry3nado3_500.jpg")
![]("http://67.media.tumblr.com/17a3e579df4bc3d52af95d037b23e8d5/tumblr_obln1kdXzT1ry3nado4_500.jpg")
![]("http://66.media.tumblr.com/47383bbf7707172b0c108b0e79d1d3ce/tumblr_obln1kdXzT1ry3nado5_500.jpg")
![]("http://66.media.tumblr.com/c48a1d2b8bfcf749da5c9ad31e5e6ae2/tumblr_obln1kdXzT1ry3nado6_500.jpg")
Thomas Telford Scientist of the Day
Thomas Telford, a British civil engineer, was born Aug. 9, 1757.
Washington Post | This robot lawyer helps the newly evicted file for housing aid Washington Post He's the creator of DoNotPay, an online robot that has successfully challenged over 160,000 parking tickets for drivers in London and New York City. Following the success of ... “Automation can be helpful, but it can also be incredibly flawed. A lot of ... |
British cleaner maker's first robot vacuum was worth waiting for, but costs a lot, can't do the stairs and isn't perfect despite being the best available right now
Dyson's 360 Eye robot vacuum cleaner has finally been released in the UK after an extensive trial in Japan and it claims to be the best available. How does it stack up against the market leading Roomba and is it really worth buying?
Continue reading...!["gladwell]("http://cdn8.openculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/08233037/gladwell-education-e1470724243597.jpg")
Image by Kris Krüg, via Flickr Commons
Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast kicked off this summer and in his very first episode, he took on the question of how women have broken into male-dominated fields, and the many reasons that so often hasn't happened. Having set this tone, Gladwell asks in a more recent inquiry—a three-part series spanning Episodes 4 through 7—a similar question about what we might call meritocracy in education, a value fundamental to liberal democracy, however that's interpreted. As Gladwell puts it in “Carlos Doesn't Remember,” “This is what civilized societies are supposed to do: to provide opportunities for people to make the most of their ability. So that if you're born poor, you can move up. If you work hard, you can improve your life.”
Over some sentimental, homespun orchestration, Gladwell points out that Americans have told ourselves that this is our birthright, “that every kid can become president.” We have seen ourselves this way despite the fact that at the country's origin, higher offices were solely the property of propertied men, a small minority even then. Lest we forget, for all their good intentions, Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack and later collection, “The Way to Wealth,” were written as satires, “relentlessly scathing social and political commentary,” writes Jill Lepore, that mock wishful thinking and exaggerated ambition even as they offer helpful hints for organized, diligent living. Americans, the more cynical of us might think, have always believed impossible things, and the myth of meritocracy is one of them.
But Gladwell, skimming past the cultural history, wants to genuinely ask the question, “is it true? Is the system geared to serve the poor smart kid, or the rich smart kid?” Apart from our beliefs and political ideologies, what can we really say about what he calls, in economics terms, “the rate of capitalization” in the U.S.? This number, Gladwell explains, measures “the percentage of people in any group who are able to reach their potential.” Better than “its GDP, or its growth rate, or its per-capita income,” a society's capitalization rate, he says, allows us to judge “how successful and just” a country is—and in the case of the U.S. in particular, how much it lives up to its ideals.
The first episode in the series (Episode 4 of the podcast, stream it above) introduces us to Gladwell's first subject, Carlos, a very bright high school student in Los Angeles, and Eric Eisner, a retired entertainment lawyer who devotes his time to scouting out talented kids from low income families and helping them get into private schools. Eisner did exactly that for Carlos, finding him a place in an upscale private Brentwood school in the fifth grade. Early in Gladwell's interview with Carlos, the question of what James Heckman at Boston Review identifies as the “non-cognitive characteristics” that inhibit social success comes up. These are as often “physical and mental health” and the soft skills of social interaction as they are access to something as seemingly mundane as a pair of tennis shoes that fit.
Carlos, a “really, really gifted kid,” Gladwell reiterates, cannot make it into and through the complicated social system of private school without Eisner, who bought him new tennis shoes, and who provides other material and social forms of support for the students he mentors. Students like Carlos, Gladwell argues, need not only mentors, but patrons in the mold of an ancient Roman patrician: “not just any advocate: a high-powered guy with lots of connections, who can get you in and watch over you.” The key to class mobility, in other words, lies with the arbitrary noblesse oblige of those who have already made it, generally with some considerable advantages of their own. The remainder of the episode explores the obvious and non-obvious problems with this modern-day patronage system.
In “Food Fight,” the next part of the mini-series on “capitalization,” Gladwell and his colleagues open the door on the world of prestigious liberal arts colleges' dining services, starting at Bowdoin College in Maine, a place where the food services are “in a whole different class.” Bowdoin's excellent food, Gladwell argues, represents a “moral problem.” To help us understand, he makes a direct comparison with Bowdoin's elite competitor, Vassar College, whose student dining is more in line with what most of us experienced at college; in one student's understated phrase, there's “room for improvement.” What the food comparison illustrates is this: when many elite institutions doubled their financial aid budgets a decade or so ago to increase enrollment of low-income students, other budget lines, so Vassar's president claims, took such a hit that food, facilities, and other services suffered.
Vassar's current president transformed the student body from primarily full-tuition-paying students to primarily students “who pay very little.” The egalitarian move means the college must lean too heavily on its endowment and on the paying students. Gladwell doesn't delve into what we've also been hearing about for at least the last decade: as institutions like Vassar accept and fund increasing numbers of low-income students, other schools charged legally with providing for the public good, like the University of California system, have raised tuition to levels unaffordable to thousands of prospective students.
Colleges across the country may have raised tuition rates to their current astronomical levels in part to better fund poorer applicants, but they have also faced stiff criticism for spending huge amounts on athletics, building projects, and exorbitant administrative salaries. The food comparison presents us with an either/or scenario, but the moral problem inhabits a much grayer reality than Gladwell acknowledges. Likewise, in the story of Carlos, we come to understand why smart kids from poor neighborhoods face so many impediments once they arrive at elite institutions. But we don't hear about why so many poor kids fail to achieve at all due to what what Heckman calls “the principle source of inequality today”—children born into poverty begin life at a severe disadvantage from the very start, leading to social divisions of the “skilled and unskilled” even in early childhood.
We do get a broader picture in the final episode in the series, “My Little Hundred Millions,” in which Gladwell looks into another moral problem: In the story of Henry Rowan, who in the early ‘90s donated $100 million to a tiny university in New Jersey, we see a stark contrast to the way most philanthropists operate, almost as a rule making their generous gifts to elite, already wealthy schools like Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. This system of philanthropy perpetuates inequality in higher education and keeps elite institutions elite, even as—in places like Vassar—it gives them the reserve capital they need to fund lower-income students. Like any complex institutional system with a long, tangled history of exclusion and privilege, higher education in the U.S. offers us a very good model for studying inequality.
To hear Gladwell's full assessment of meritocracy or “capitalization,” you'll need to listen to the full series as it builds on each example to make its larger point. Each episode's webpage also includes links to reference documents and featured books so that you can continue the investigation on your own, correcting for the podcast's blind spots and biases. What Gladwell's series does well, as do many of his pop sociological bestsellers, is give us concrete examples that run up against many of our abstract preconceptions. It's an interesting approach—structuring an extended look at exceptionalism and its problems around three exceptional cases. But it is these cases, with all their complications and complexity, that often get lost in over-generalized discussions about higher education and the myths and realities of social mobility.
Related Content:
Malcolm Gladwell Has Launched a New Podcast, Revisionist History: Hear the First Episode
Malcolm Gladwell: Taxes Were High and Life Was Just Fine
Malcolm Gladwell: What We Can Learn from Spaghetti Sauce
Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness
Malcolm Gladwell Asks Hard Questions about Money & Meritocracy in American Higher Education: Stream 3 Episodes of His New Podcast is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs.
This week, the eyes of the world are on the city of Rio de Janeiro, as visitors and Cariocas alike revel in the celebration of an historic moment: the first time the Olympics and Paralympics Games have ever been held in South America.
The Games are all about competition between individuals, teams and nations. We cheer for our nations and delight in the competitive spirit of the games. And yet, when we speak of the Olympics, we don't discuss host countries -- we talk instead about host cities. And the Olympic Games are only one example of how cities are commanding greater influence on the national stage, an evolution that has significant implications for our global community.
While nations go to great lengths to best other countries in everything from economic growth to football, the story at the city level is quite the contrary: it is a quiet but powerful story of collaboration and cooperation, especially when it comes to taking action against climate change.
As megacity mayors, we have long considered cities laboratories for great ideas, but it wasn't until the COP21 climate negotiations in Paris last year that we recognized the scope of our capacity as local leaders to influence the course of the planet. World leaders made a commitment through the Paris Agreement, but it's up to cities to deliver on that ambition and prevent runaway climate change. How cities develop in the coming years will set the stage for humanity as a whole.
The good news is that for more than a decade, the mayors of the world's megacities have come together with passion and momentum to share knowledge and drive measurable and sustainable action on climate change through the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40). Today, 85 cities are members of the network, representing 650 million people and a quarter of the world's economy.
Created and led by cities, C40 is focused on tackling climate change and driving urban action that reduces greenhouse-gas emissions -- C40 cities have already committed to reducing their emissions by a total of more than 3 gigatons of C02 by 2030 -- the equivalent of taking 600 million cars off the road. Mayors are sharing ideas, driving ambition and creating the momentum that will be essential in keeping the increase in global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
Crucially, the exchange of ideas between cities is genuinely global. More than half of the cities in the C40 network are from Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East -- these city leaders are showing incredible commitment to low-carbon development and climate action.
And cities are taking every opportunity to pursue the twin goals of urban sustainability and economic growth. For Rio, the Olympics have given us the chance to coordinate all efforts toward a common goal: an eye toward a better future for the city. The Games provided Rio with an opportunity to move toward a more sustainable, equitable and green future, enhancing urban mobility, fortifying and unifying the city's data systems, revitalizing neglected areas of the city and undertaking some of the most ambitious legacy projects an Olympic City has ever seen.
Though Paris is a much older and more storied city, we have found innovative ways to welcome the principles of sustainability to its heart: closing the iconic Champs-Élysées to cars once a month, pedestrianizing the banks of the Seine, retrofitting buildings and establishing a citywide long-term emissions-reduction goal.
As the star power from the Paris climate talks fades, city leaders are in the trenches, tackling the daily challenges of a city's needs while creating the framework for long-lasting commitments to building cities healthier, safer and greener.
In fact, at the end of this year, mayors, urban experts, businesspeople and celebrities from around the world will come together at the C40 Mayors Summit in Mexico City. There, delegates will work to continue positioning cities as a leading force for climate action around the world, defining and amplifying their call to national governments for greater support and autonomy in delivering climate action and creating a sustainable future.
Exactly one year since the COP21 climate negotiations in Paris, these leaders in the global effort against climate change will once again provide the vision and inspiration to political leaders everywhere to deliver on the Paris Agreement. As the current Chair and Chair-Elect of C40, we are determined to see the world's largest and most influential cities continue to mobilize to deliver on this promise. Our ambition is not only to create low-carbon cities that are safe against the shocks of a rapidly warming world, but to deliver sustainable, equitable and healthy futures for millions of urban citizens worldwide.
*Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, was recently elected to succeed Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio De Janeiro, as Chair of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. Mayor Hidalgo will take the role in December 2016.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
!["2016-08-09-1470744270-3184712-5554671474_707bae4a74_z.jpg"]("http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-08-09-1470744270-3184712-5554671474_707bae4a74_z.jpg")
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Teens showed an image that was deemed to have lots of "likes" tended to also like the image. Seeing popular pictures also produced greater activation in the reward centers of the brain.
Kieran Williams Photography posted a photo:
!["Meet]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8658/28251377643_aeeeeb9a03_m.jpg")
![]("https://drscdn.500px.org/photo/166991055/m%3D900/cfaabec81da2aeea33d5f79ce91ab604")
![]("https://drscdn.500px.org/photo/166972899/m%3D900/bf40fa33b6451e17c4eb37f724125ada")
![]("https://drscdn.500px.org/photo/166972055/m%3D900/566a098721c798bb1f1f0e4e6042c07f")
![]("https://media.science360.gov/files/pic-day/823fffdf-195d-496f-85a9-b6ff865d58f9-largeImage.jpg")
Full Text:
A "Nano Flower," a 3-D nanostructure grown by controlled nucleation of silicon carbide nanowires on gallium catalyst particles. As the growth proceeds, individual nanowires "knit" together to form 3-D structures. This photomicrograph was taken by Ghim Wei Ho, a Ph.D. student studying nanotechnology at the University of Cambridge. Ho--who works with professor Mark Welland, head of Cambridge's Nanoscale Science Lab--makes new types of materials based on nanotechnology (this "Nano Flower" is an example of new material). Nanometer-scale wires (about one thousandth the diameter of a human hair) of a silicon-carbon material (silicon carbide) are grown from tiny droplets of a liquid metal (gallium) on a silicon surface, like the chips inside our home computers. The wires grow as a gas containing methane flows over the surface. The gas reacts at the surface of the droplets and condenses to form the wires. By changing the temperature and pressure of the growth process the wires can be controllably fused together in a natural process to form a range of new structures, including these flower-like materials. Researchers are investigating possible applications for the structures like water repellant coatings and as a base for a new type of solar cell. This image was taken with a scanning electron microscope. Image color was modified using Adobe Photoshop.
Image credit: ©Ghim Wei Ho and Prof. Mark Welland, Nanostructure Center, University of Cambridge
![]("https://media.science360.gov/files/story/cd2f4bd4-c1d6-4dcb-855f-06d5b3d47b60-largeImage.jpg")
Full Text:
Designers of solar cells may soon be setting their sights higher as a discovery by a team of researchers has revealed a class of materials that could be better at converting sunlight into energy than those currently being used in solar arrays. Their research shows how a material can be used to extract power from a small portion of the sunlight spectrum with a conversion efficiency that is above its theoretical maximum -- a value called the Shockley-Queisser limit. This finding could lead to more power-efficient solar cells.
Image credit: Drexel University/Ella Marushcenko
We might have thought that the long-term dimming of “alien megastructure” star, Tabby's Star, had been put to rest as a calibration error, but now, boffins reckon its mysterious dimming can be seen in Kepler data.…
International Business Times UK | IBM Watson's AI makes life-saving diagnosis for medical mystery leukemia patient who baffled doctors International Business Times UK Embed Feed Are computers coming for you job? IBM's Watson correctly diagnosed a patient after doctors failed but will unlikely replace doctors like this crime-fighting robot intended to replace security guards. IBTimes US. Elementary? Robot 'Dr Watson' diagnosed rare leukemia after medics fail to find itRT all 14 news articles » |
It's an ongoing standoff between musicians and Google's YouTube: Who should be responsible for removing unauthorized copies of songs posted online?
NPR's Audie Cornish talks with Peter Hollens, an a cappella singer who regularly releases new music on his YouTube channel, about how the proliferation of music online could be a plus for artists.
After ProPublica identified dozens of cases of dehumanizing photos posted on social media sites, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services unveiled a plan to increase oversight.
MIT boffins reckon they've cracked one of the more difficult challenges of practical quantum computing the miniaturisation of components.…
![]("https://drscdn.500px.org/photo/166930281/m%3D900/3723498d67ba18aab15d9f88dd689a11")
![]("https://drscdn.500px.org/photo/166919813/m%3D900/05311b931c5fea4c43761b1bfc5378aa")
!["2016-08-09-1470706397-4640729-GinaDrivingHerLeafAug2016.jpg"]("http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-08-09-1470706397-4640729-GinaDrivingHerLeafAug2016.jpg")
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Scientists in Queensland develop an environmental DNA test to help make habitats easier to identify
Australian scientists have developed a cutting-edge test that could give the endangered largetooth sawfish a better chance of survival.
Researchers working from James Cook University in Queensland, have found a way to reliably test large bodies of water for the DNA of the prehistoric-looking fish and help make habitats easier to identify.
Related: Are local efforts to save coral reefs bound to fail?
Continue reading...NASA and Lockheed Martin have finalised the contract for an upcoming CubeSat mission called SkyFire.…
Daily Star Gazette | Can Artificial intelligence, Robots, Humanoids learn ethics and morales? Gilbert Technology Time Daily Star Gazette Researchers at Georgia Tech believes Robots can learn to conform to human norms, the paper argues, through a method called “Quixote”, which teaches artificial agents to read stories that demonstrate human values and then rewards them for “good” ... |
Lord Eglinton posted a photo:
!["Orange]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8781/28239769564_f00be25d97_m.jpg")
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Read more: Animal Welfare, Wildlife Conservation, Born Free USA, Adam Roberts, Adam M. Roberts, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Elephants, Ivory, Lions, Tigers, Cites, Green News
klaprobean posted a photo:
!["Complete]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8164/28240326074_393053bb29_m.jpg")
![]("http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/b9ee8909055d2b2883867f7d775ae0e7/204176765/f038ba24-728f-4b92-b823-d1b992e051c7.jpg")
Siri, Alexa and Cortana are helpful around the house, but can their respective tech follow you around the house like something out of a science fiction movie? Big-I, the personal robot, can do just that. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
!["Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fstory%2fthumbnail%2f16681%2frobot_kitchen"]("http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/8EXj19qzeF4ykGW0tKwvux1aQ5s=/575x323/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fstory%2Fthumbnail%2F16681%2FRobot_Kitchen.jpg")
!["Feed-tw"]("http://a.amz.mshcdn.com/assets/feed-tw-f7c0a094d16b7ee7c91a1e50839a8e00.jpg")
!["Feed-fb"]("http://a.amz.mshcdn.com/assets/feed-fb-c0a21e8841794479b8086c32c6f24ba1.jpg")
Researchers at Moley Robotics have used motion-capture technology to bring MasterChef champion Tim Anderson's mouth-watering meals to your table, hands free. Read more...
More about Mashable Video, Tech, Kitchenware, Food And Wine, and Real Timergcxyz35 posted a photo:
!["w]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8578/28855675465_e505d809d5_m.jpg")
Storm clouds ahead but the setting sun behind me is reflected in the Walkie Talkie building on Fenchurch St.
OssWesley posted a photo:
!["Summer]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8242/28823789016_6a58c50043_m.jpg")
St Mary's Church Kilburn at sunset
This article appears in slightly different form in the Financial Times.
Traditionally, the presidential campaign experiences a lull between the summer conventions and the Labor Day holiday at the beginning of September. Traditionally, political parties do not nominate someone as unstable and desperate for attention as Donald Trump. Rather than suffer a moment's repose, the Republican nominee has spent the past week testing the proposition that his own party will continue to support him no matter how outrageous and offensive his behavior.
For Republicans who no longer have to face voters, Trump has made the decision to opt out an easy one. Both former Bush presidents have declined to endorse him or appear at their party's convention. Powerful criticism of Trump from Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, has helped to put Utah in play for the Democrats for the first time in half a century. Another recent defector is Richard Hanna, a Republican congressman from upstate New York who said last week that he would vote for Hillary Clinton—and who is not running for re-election.
Conservative foreign policy eminences, intellectuals, and journalists have been breaking ranks even more volubly. The columnist George Will declared in June that he was quitting the Republican Party, prompting the predictable Twitter assault from Trump. Other leading voices on the right—including Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Max Boot, David Brooks, Robert Kagan, and David Frum—have declared positions ranging from could-never-vote-for-Trump to will-vote-for-Clinton.
For candidates and party officials, however, calculation has pre-empted principle. Most do not think they have the luxury of conscience when it comes to breaking with Trump. Part of this is simple fear. Trump, a petulant and vindictive man, requires little provocation to unleash a storm of personal invective, along with his volunteer militia of digital trolls, at anyone who dares to challenge him. The larger factor is political realism. Republican Senate and House of Representatives candidates know that regardless of how strongly they may object to him, their fortunes are largely tied to their party's nominee.
This is the predicament in which Paul Ryan finds himself. The speaker of the House says he hasn't written Trump a “blank check.” That, however, is precisely what he did when he endorsed him, with exquisitely bad timing, just as Trump was going into bigoted paroxysms about the unfairness of a “Mexican judge” ruling in a lawsuit filed against him. A moving public plea to Ryan from Khizr Khan, the father of the Muslim American Army captain killed in Iraq in 2004, prompted no change of heart. Neither did Trump's extraordinary attack on Khan and his wife, nor even Trump's ostentatious delay in endorsing Ryan for re-election. There appears to be no limit to Trump's overdraft protection from party leaders.
While morally untenable, their position makes sense from the perspective of preserving the Republican congressional majority. The past two decades have seen a trend away from ticket-splitting—voting for one party's presidential candidate and the other party's candidates for House and Senate races. This pattern suggests that if Trump goes down to a crushing defeat in November, Republican Senate candidates are likely to fall with him in key races in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida and New Hampshire. Efforts by down-ballot candidates to separate themselves from their party's nominee could easily make matters worse, alienating the base of Trump supporters without bringing meaningful gains among Democrats or swing voters.
This leaves survival-minded Republican politicians in a pretzel-like posture. No one has faced a more yogic contortion than John McCain, the Arizona senator and 2008 Republican nominee. Trump appalled everyone last summer with his ghastly comment that McCain, a former prisoner of war who was tortured by the North Vietnamese, was not a genuine war hero because he had been captured. Last week, McCain issued a written statement saying he felt “morally bound to speak” in response to Trump's comments about the Khan family. As with Ryan, Trump pointedly postponed endorsing McCain in his upcoming primary race. For all that, McCain has not revoked his own endorsement of Trump.
At some point the dam may burst, either because the level of cognitive dissonance required becomes intolerable, or because politicians perceive their interests to be served by formally breaking with Trump. This was the bet Ted Cruz made at the Republican convention, when he was booed for refusing to endorse Trump, telling party members to vote with their consciences. The Texas senator is gambling that standing against Trump will make him look principled and prophetic in 2020.
A wider Republican abandonment of Trump, if it comes, will be about self-preservation. Last week, Mike Coffman, who represents a Colorado swing district with a large Latino population, aired an anti-Trump commercial in English and Spanish. The ad is titled “Country First,” echoing the charge that those surrendering to Trump are putting party ahead of country. It is a moral stand—as well as a candidate's desperate effort to save himself.
Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.
Waterford_Man posted a photo:
!["London]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8813/28239173963_1808509d41_m.jpg")
Thanks for all the views, Please check out my other photos and albums.
Waterford_Man posted a photo:
!["London]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8692/28239175103_1bdfccc1f6_m.jpg")
Thanks for all the views, Please check out my other photos and albums.
Liam Beeton posted a photo:
!["St]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8788/28236237124_63ca4ea99e_m.jpg")
A view of St Paul's Cathedral from Millennium Bridge in London.
Liam Beeton posted a photo:
!["Tower]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8710/28238798973_c03611a990_m.jpg")
A view of Tower Bridge from the other side of the Thames in London.
![]("http://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/08082016-POD_09-1560x1041.jpg")
Hundreds of photographers have gathered in Rio to follow the action in the Olympic arenas, swimming pools, racetracks, and more. Over the next two weeks I'll be featuring some amazing images from recent Olympic events. Today's entry encompasses fencing, basketball, handball, swimming, diving, eventing, table tennis, archery, and much more.
![]("https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/photo/2016/08/photos-from-the-first-weekend-of-ri/r01_RTSLNQB/main_1200.jpg?1470681127")
ghrovy posted a photo:
![]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8388/28822425796_fe880fd229_m.jpg")
ghrovy posted a photo:
!["Every]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8571/28569255440_11d683920c_m.jpg")
Every person in my life has a story.
She's Dea, she wants to be free.
She wants to love, she wants photography, music, art, she wants kisses, caresses, cuddles, she wants sunsets, sunrises, books, hands, she wants to live.
I love Dea, I love everything about her: the way she takes photo, the way she sings, she writes, the way she kisses my cheeks, my neck or my hands, the way she walks, she talks, she laughs, the way she tries to make me happy when I'm angry, the way she's so kind with everyone, the way she breathes or the way she looks at me.
She's my precious flower.
I'll come back to you.
ghrovy posted a photo:
!["Feeling]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8670/28748379862_59e82e167a_m.jpg")
ghrovy posted a photo:
!["Thinking]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8693/28748370562_80dd61b363_m.jpg")
ghrovy posted a photo:
!["Watch]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8285/28238437453_e8cb59a758_m.jpg")
Scientists hoping to find signs of Martian life on the surface of the Red Planet may not be in luck.…
!["Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fstory%2fthumbnail%2f16570%2fpillownologojw-thumb_720"]("http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/xXmTM_Vx0e_9PrALiAYo5zZUNIA=/575x323/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fstory%2Fthumbnail%2F16570%2Fpillownologojw-thumb_720.jpg")
ZEEQ, created by Moley Robotics, could be the answer to your sleeping problems.
The smart pillow wirelessly streams music and gathers analytics through built-in sensors as you sleep.
The company hopes to distribute the pillow by 2017. Read more...
More about Mashable Video, Standalone Featured, Apps, Music Streaming, and Sleep ProductsLeigh Cousins RAW posted a photo:
!["King]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8765/28821429966_1d5a475dc6_m.jpg")
Just about managed to catch this shot before the sun went down, and what a beautiful sunset it was! This is the west view from King Henry's Mound in Richmond Park.
I didn't expect there to be so much vegetation, in one way it blocks the view but another it adds to the atmosphere.
Airbus_A340 posted a photo:
!["Airbus]("http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8534/28819755796_be13d47a7e_m.jpg")
After landing in London Heathrow on the A340 in B-HXF. We parked at a remote bay, which is rare due to being over 30 minutes early on arrival. A colourful sunset greets us as we disembark the aircraft. Bittersweet, as we will not see a 4-engine passenger service in London again. The A340 has served Cathay Pacific really well. It was a pioneer and a magnificent machine to fly, it will be the last ever of the 4-engine passenger service that Cathay Pacific ever flies. It will be missed when the fleet is phased out in the first half of 2017. Such is the reality of a business- looking to the future, the A350 is bigger, better, faster, more comfortable and more economical.
![]("https://drscdn.500px.org/photo/166751215/m%3D900/74a562c1ef297150452f1f948b2a84b8")
!["2016-08-05-1470438093-4301324-25751keyholegardenwithcenterforfoodwaste.jpg"]("http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-08-05-1470438093-4301324-25751keyholegardenwithcenterforfoodwaste.jpg")
!["2016-08-05-1470438185-3570512-18563Bolivianmomandchildkeyholegarden.jpg"]("http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-08-05-1470438185-3570512-18563Bolivianmomandchildkeyholegarden.jpg")
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
!["Alligator]("http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/08/NatGeo-ALLIGATOR-GAR-MAIN.jpeg")
Posted by Dr. Solomon David, research associate at Shedd Aquarium.
Gars and bowfin have been around since the dinosaurs; in fact, they've outlasted them. More recently, however, a modern creature has threatened these ancient fishes: humans. Misunderstood and much-maligned, these fishes were targets of eradication efforts for more than a century (1). Now, perceptions of these toothy predators may be changing. Recent interest in these “living fossils” has led to new research and even reintroduction efforts to bring back a lost species (2,3). All species of gars and bowfin are important parts of native biodiversity and ecosystem function, but could they also impact invasive species?
!["Bowfin]("http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/08/NatGeo-BOWFIN-Shedd-Aquarium-600x447.jpeg")
Their appearance hasn't changed much since the Cretaceous period over 65 million years ago. Gars (family Lepisosteidae) look like alligators with fins instead of legs, characterized by elongated snouts filled with sharp teeth, armor-like rhomboid scales, and the ability to breathe air. Shorten the snout (keep the teeth), add more slime and a bow-shaped dorsal fin, and you've essentially got a bowfin (Amia calva). It's no wonder these fishes are often considered less desirable than more traditional sport fish such as bass, perch and walleye. Because of their menacing appearance, misconceptions about eating valuable sport fishes and perceived lack of value (often considered “trash fish”), humans have historically sought to remove gars and bowfin throughout much of their range (1). Sometimes removal occurred indirectly by habitat modification and subsequent loss of spawning grounds (3). In fact, humans have been quite successful in some areas; the alligator gar, the largest species of the group (they can grow over 9 feet long and weigh more than 300 pounds), was driven to local extinction from the northern extent of its range in Illinois by the 1960s (3). When caught, other gars and bowfin are often simply cast aside on the riverbank. It was once illegal in several states to return gars to the water alive!
Fortunately, perceptions of these ancient fishes are slowly changing, as new research and renewed interest from anglers are garnering a more positive image of these misunderstood fishes. For example, gar fishing guides in Texas host anglers from all over the world for the opportunity to catch (and release) a 200-pound real-life river monster. Earlier this year, scientists discovered that the genetic make-up of spotted gars can help us better understand human development and disease (4,5). Further, in an effort to restore what was lost decades ago, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) is reintroducing the alligator gar to several Illinois rivers to increase biodiversity and create a trophy sport fishery.
!["Dr.]("http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/08/NatGeo-ALG-SRD.jpg")
There are seven species of gars and one species of bowfin, all native to North America, ranging from southern Canada to Costa Rica. As apex predators, what do they eat? Considered opportunistic feeders, these fishes tend to consume whatever prey items are most abundant in the area, such as forage fish, sunfish, and crustaceans. Humans, however, are not part of their diets. In fact, there have been no verified cases of attack (not even the giant alligator gar), showing that these ancient fishes pose no threat to humans. As native top predators, the question has been raised, could gars and bowfin also have an impact on invasive species such as Asian carp? What does the science tell us?
Recentresearch from Western Illinois University (6) showed that in some cases, shortnose gars and other native predatory fishes do in fact select for Asian carp, as young carp were found in higher numbers in gar stomachs than other prey items. However, a newstudy (7) showed that predation by spotted gars and bowfin had no significant impact on common carp populations. Many scientists agree that alligator gars can and do consume Asian carp, but the extent to which carp comprise their diet and the impact on Asian carp populations are relatively understudied. So, gars and bowfin are eating carp, and it's great to see a native species preying on invasive species; other recent examples include smallmouth bass preying on round goby, and lake whitefish eating zebra mussels in the Great Lakes. But, could gar predation on Asian carp make a significant ecological impact? The numbers suggest no. When discussing Asian carp, IDNR fisheriesscientists speak in terms of tons of carp per river mile. Alternatively, even a successful reintroduction of alligator gars may be only one or two fish per river mile in several Illinois tributaries (note: alligator gars are not being stocked in the Great Lakes basin). Vastly different reproductive rates are also an issue. Asian carp mature around age 3 and reproduce in larger numbers than alligator gars, which don't mature until they're about 11 years old and may not spawn every year. There are simply too many carp and too few gars to expect a significant impact. Time, research, and the fishes will tell us how gars and other native species may impact this gargantuan threat.
Regardless of their impact on invasive species, gars and bowfin are valuable components of native biodiversity and play important roles in ecosystem function. As top predators, gars and bowfin can help prevent overpopulation of forage fishes (such as shad) and stunting in game fishes (like sunfish), therefore helping maintain ecosystem balance (1). They can also be indicators of ecosystem health. Great Lakes spotted gars prefer clear, highly-vegetated waters, which in turn are prime nursery areas for other game species such as bass and perch; finding the gar can indicate good habitat for other sport fishes. Alligator garsare also migratory fish, relying on river-floodplain connections for spawning; successful reproduction and recruitment can indicate quality habitat connectivity for other migratory species.
!["A]("http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/08/NatGeo-BOWFIN-UWGB-Research-600x330.jpeg")
Shedd Aquarium's team of research scientists is actively involved in studying native and invasive species in the Great Lakes region, as well as rivers throughout the state of Illinois that are home to ancient fishes like gars and bowfin. In our Great Lakesmigratory fishes research, finding bowfin and gars was an example of successful wetland habitat restoration, indicating several fish species quickly take advantage of newly available habitat for spawning. As we continue our research efforts in the region, we seek to find ways to protect native species from disappearing from their natural range, to maintain balanced ecosystems, and ensure sustainable populations for future generations. While we are not directly involved in the reintroduction of alligator gar, this work can benefit ecosystems and species we do spend so much time studying.
!["Members]("http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/08/NatGeo-3-Gar-Species-Ancient-Sport-Fish-Team-600x460.jpeg")
A close colleague of ours, Dr. Jeffrey Stein of the Illinois Natural History Survey's Sport Fish Ecology Lab, is leading an effort to better understand and conserve these ancient fishes. As a collaborator on the “Ancient Sport Fish Project,” we are gathering data on age, growth and other characteristics of gar and bowfin species throughout the state. The primary goal is to evaluate the status and trends of Illinois gar and bowfin populations and provide managers with objective data needed to develop strategies for a sustainable [ancient] sport fishery. Since 2015, in partnership with IDNR, the team has tagged thousands of gars and bowfin and will eventually include alligator gar in our research efforts. You can follow along with #AncientSportFish on Twitter for updates on the project!
For more information about the reintroduction of alligator gar, listen to this podcast from the IDNR or visit their website. You can also learn about Shedd Aquarium's research on native and invasive species on our website.
*Shedd Aquarium in partnership with University of Wisconsin-Madison and Green Bay, The Nature Conservancy
References:
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2F236x%2Fa5%2Fc7%2F75%2Fa5c775f8b30f05bf3fcf448b47bc9be8.jpg&width=540&mix=c5054-pin-art")
You Could Roll on Land or the Seafloor in This Fanciful Concept Car | WIRED
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2F236x%2Fa2%2F13%2F08%2Fa213087756394a05acfa719d1d8ff662.jpg&width=540&mix=c5054-pin-art")
Too Bad You'll Never Drive Nissan's Razor-Like Electric Concept | WIRED
!["Victoria]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fs3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com%2Fcentaur-wp%2Fdesignweek%2Fprod%2Fcontent%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F04%2F12112437%2FiStock_000054571830_Medium.jpg&width=540&mix=22833-design")
Friend and Company has been appointed to redesign the Victoria and Albert Museum's main shop and introduce a “new approach to retail”.
The new £1,000,000 retail space will be “more dynamic and flexible” than its predecessor and will “function in close dialogue with the galleries, exhibitions and events surrounding it”, according to the museum.
It will fit in with the V&A's FuturePlan, a long-term development programme, which has seen large parts of the museum redeveloped.
The FuturePlan also dictates the need for a more holistic visitor experience that brings hospitality closer to the collections.
The retail space is found on the ground floor and runs from the front to the back of the museum, meaning that most visitors pass through it.
The V&A, which put out a tender in March, is paying Friend and Company £96,250 for the work. Friend and company beat five other consultancies to the contract.
Friend and Company was unable to comment at the time of publishing.
The post £1,000,000 V&A shop to be designed by Friend and Company appeared first on Design Week.
!["Picture]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fs3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com%2Fcentaur-wp%2Fdesignweek%2Fprod%2Fcontent%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F08%2F08142434%2FiStock_71881347_MEDIUM.jpg&width=540&mix=22833-design")
These days, design businesses should be partnering with rather than supplying to their clients. Why is this a good thing? What does a partnership look like and what are the risks? And what can you do to move deeper into partner territory?
As a partner your position is more secure because your relationships are deeper and stronger, assuming you also add value of course. You are part of the discussion that leads to the work as opposed to your client coming to you, telling you what to do and you then working in isolation. As partners, you will solve problems together, which expands the scope of possible solutions and builds a better understanding of the relationship for each of you. All things being equal, partnerships should yield better returns for both parties in the medium term.
When you're in a partnership your client's problems are your problems. Their challenges are your challenges. You jointly own the situation. And most importantly, your client feels this.
If your client lost you, they'd feel as if they were losing a valued member of their team. Your remit does not end when you deliver a piece of work. You are involved in the outcome and also the follow up.
You give up some control over the outcome but you remain fully involved in the work. You know when to step back. You will hear yourself saying: “What I'd recommend is this, but it's your final decision.”
You develop better empathy. You can understand and appreciate your client's position without agreeing with it. This means that you can disagree and stay working together.
You add value in the run up to the work and afterwards. You suggest what could happen outside the scope of the work. This needs to be treated as an investment on your part to start with. You could make it conditional on the size of the project and budget for it by attaching a percentage of the fee to partnership building.
Something to guard against is focusing all of your efforts on one person within the client's business. Doing this, especially with someone at mid-level is a risk. Given the fast staff turnover in marketing departments, should they leave, the relationship and the partnership walks with them. Similarly, at the top level, bearing in mind today's preference for consensus management, it is advisable to think both across and down the organisation when building relationships.
Be prepared to work harder. A partnership is an investment. This will mean extra work and quite possibly extra unpaid work. The pay-off is extra paid work in the future and better pay for that work.
So how do you go about shifting towards “partner” and away from “supplier”?
It makes sense to start with your current clients. They are your most established relationships and probably closest to the partner status that you're looking for. They are a good place to test some new ways of developing relationships.
I spoke with Charlee Sully, creative director of The Usual Studio who has employed a number of partnership building strategies in growing her design business.
Create conversations: set up a time to speak, away from a pitch or piece of work. This enables the scope of the conversation to be broad and wide ranging which can lead to new ideas being discovered. Sully's approach speaks to this way of working: “When I'm in the midst of discussions around a potential piece of work, I talk about other things, not the quote. I'm not ‘pushing' on this all the time are you going to do it, shall we sign it, etc although I know it's important. I take a softer approach.”
Get interested and fired up about your clients: Sully says: “I engage and become genuinely interested in my clients. I've had training in journalism so perhaps it's this background that means I love to ask questions. My conversations often end with my client saying things like: ‘I'm fizzing with ideas' and ‘I really enjoyed meeting you.' That's how I know I've started to build a good relationship.”
Get comfortable with a focus on relationship and not stuff. Sully says “I'm comfortable with meeting people, despite being an introvert. I'm very open and I don't mind speaking about mistakes. I speak to clients almost as if I know them already and this creates a warm and relaxed conversation. I listen and you'll find me making notes. It's important that they lead the conversation.”
Create a budget line for your partnership development: base this on a percentage of what your client spends with you. That's your investment in the future. You can then measure what that investment has yielded at year end in terms of growth of income.
So you're all set to shift your relationships into partnership territory. But just before you do, there's one final risk to watch out for. The risk associated with being too successful at it. Sully highlights this risk.
“Often my relationships reach a level where people are sharing information with me that they wouldn't share with other business owners. They treat me almost as a temporary business partner. This means I have to be mindful of the boundaries of my relationships and make sure that friendly does not become friends.”
You may consider this to be a ‘high class problem' to have but if you're coming upon this situation, Sully has written a piece that clarifies the territory which I would recommend reading.
John Scarrott works with design business leaders and their teams on their sales, presenting and networking skills. Follow him @JohnDScarrott or find him at johnscarrott.com
The post How to forge long lasting partnerships with your clients appeared first on Design Week.
In the first of a 10-part series, Justin Marozzi tells the story of this once-mighty city in Iraq a microcosm of human history. Besieged by wars and weather, ‘restored' by Saddam Hussein, what has become of mystical Babylon?
Of all the world's lost cities, none surely can compete for evocative splendour, age or mystery with Babylon. Here on the desert plains 60 miles south of Baghdad, where the sun turns horizons into flashing pools of mercury, is where so much of human history began.
Land of the Fertile Crescent, bounded by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, this is successively the realm of Sumer and Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia, Mesopotamia and Iraq. Adam and Eve's Garden of Eden is said to have been nearby.
As to Etemenanki, the ziggurat of Babylon, of which Nabopolossar, king of Babylon, my father, my begetter, had fixed the foundation and had raised it 30 cubits but had not erected its top, I set my hand to build it. Great cedars which were on Mount Lebanon in its forest, with my clean hands, I cut down, and placed them for its roof.”
I laid their foundations of mortar and bricks and with shining blue glaze tiles with pictures of bulls and awful dragons I adorned the interior; mighty cedars to roof them over I caused to be stretched out, the wings of the gates of cedar wood coated with bronze, the lintels and the door knobs of brass I fastened into the openings of the gates; massive bulls of bronze and dreadful, awe-inspiring serpents I set up at their thresholds, the two gates I ornamented with great splendour to the amazement of all men. In order that the onslaught of battle might not draw nigh to Imgur-Bel, the wall of Babylon.”
A colony of pigeons landed among the high-walled ruins to rest in the sun and shit all over history
Related: Story of cities #3: the birth of Baghdad was a landmark for world civilisation
Continue reading...![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2F236x%2F16%2Fc9%2F37%2F16c9371d6188227a4a7a8c6f5df86816.jpg&width=540&mix=9f897-pin-images")
Nepal ![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2F236x%2F56%2Fc6%2Fc8%2F56c6c873c69e36cb03ff517e0cb172ed.jpg&width=540&mix=9f897-pin-images")
Camilo Matiz, Miami Art Basel ![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn1.tnwcdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F1%2Ffiles%2F2016%2F08%2Fdriverless-cars-796x398.jpg&width=540&mix=3106b-technology")
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2F236x%2Fc4%2F13%2Fe7%2Fc413e79083526fda29a9f58d8b6407db.jpg&width=540&mix=9f897-pin-images")
Chicago Harbor Light on Lake Michigan (© Tim Klein/Gallery Stock) 2016-08-07 [www.bing.com/search] !["2016-08-05-1470418544-8781493-StressLiterallyShrinksYourBrain8WaysToReverseThisEffectHP.jpg"]("http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-08-05-1470418544-8781493-StressLiterallyShrinksYourBrain8WaysToReverseThisEffectHP.jpg")
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.designboom.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F08%2Fpeoples-architecture-office-pao-golden-bubbles-k11-designboom-01.jpg&width=540&mix=0b54d-art")
the oversized inflatables span through the shopping center's light-filled atrium, weaving between multiple levels and escalators, and forming interactive pods on the ground level.
The post people's architecture office stretches golden bubbles through hong kong's K11 art mall appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
Freud Museum, London
The British artist transforms Sigmund Freud's study into a Dalí-inspired hall of mirrors for a meta-surrealist look at art, psychoanalysis and self-obsession
Related: Full Marks: Mark Wallinger's ID runs rampant in his new show
When Salvador Dalí visited Sigmund Freud in London in 1938, he showed the father of psychoanalysis his Metamorphosis of Narcissus. It is a painting about reflection. In the Greek myth of Narcissus, as told in Ovid's Latin poem the Metamorphoses, beautiful, young Narcissus falls in love with his own image, and simply can't stop gazing at his reflection in a pool of water. Dalí plays optical tricks to multiply the obsessive self-regard of Narcissus, as a head becomes an egg, becomes a stone, in a world of infinite reflection.
Continue reading...Freud Museum, London
The British artist transforms Sigmund Freud's study into a Dalí-inspired hall of mirrors for a meta-surrealist look at art, psychoanalysis and self-obsession
Related: Full Marks: Mark Wallinger's ID runs rampant in his new show
When Salvador Dalí visited Sigmund Freud in London in 1938, he showed the father of psychoanalysis his Metamorphosis of Narcissus. It is a painting about reflection. In the Greek myth of Narcissus, as told in Ovid's Latin poem the Metamorphoses, beautiful, young Narcissus falls in love with his own image, and simply can't stop gazing at his reflection in a pool of water. Dalí plays optical tricks to multiply the obsessive self-regard of Narcissus, as a head becomes an egg, becomes a stone, in a world of infinite reflection.
Continue reading...![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.designboom.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F08%2Feduardo-kobra-world-largest-mural-rio-olympics-designboom-01.jpg&width=540&mix=0b54d-art")
the massive artwork illustrates faces from five continents - a theme which responds to the olympic rings.
The post eduardo kobra paints 3,000 square meter mural for the rio olympics appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.designboom.com%2Fwp-content%2Fdbsub%2F402421%2F2016-08-05%2Fimg_1_1470438538_129214bda281e0526fbe1db271d6a4d7.jpg&width=540&mix=0b54d-art")
the installation works by transforming water into steam which is then released back into the sky.
The post reiner maria matysik uses cloud machine to transform phoenix lake water in germany appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2F66.media.tumblr.com%2F9fa3dcac88775c7f50a90f7ed910e886%2Ftumblr_oa8bst6UI71sjcds5o1_500.jpg&width=540&mix=0b54d-art")
Kristian Touborg
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.designboom.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F08%2Fpokemon-nike-ID-pokeid-tumblr-designboom-01.jpg&width=540&mix=0b54d-art")
two designers have created dedicated tumblr and instagram pages that match sneakers to the likes of squirtle, snorlax, and shinx.
The post tumblr users pair pokémon with custom NIKEiD kicks appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2F66.media.tumblr.com%2F9f88ee3f00ac36272196ce52d1d71800%2Ftumblr_ob3p5bOsiG1r5nwzoo1_500.jpg&width=540&mix=0b54d-art")
LUDOVIC BALLAND
In an effort to fill in the blanks of the Standard Model of particle physics, science has been conducting a diligent search for a hypothesized particle known as the "sterile neutrino." If discovered, the sterile neutrino would have added to the neutrino family portrait and helped explain a number of puzzles that suggest the existence of more than the three known flavors of neutrinos. Ultimately, such a particle could also help resolve the mystery of the origin of dark matter and the matter/antimatter asymmetry in the universe.
Now, with the latest results from an icy particle detector at the South Pole, scientists are almost certain that there is no such particle.
Neutrinos are ghostly particles with almost no mass and only rarely interact with matter. Trillions of neutrinos will course through your body in the time it takes to read this sentence. There are three known types of neutrinos: muon, electron and tau. Hints of a possible fourth type of neutrino have come from several experiments. Known as the "sterile neutrino," the hypothesized particle would not interact at all with matter except, possibly, through gravity.
Discovering the sterile neutrino would also throw a wrench into the Standard Model, which allows for only the three known types of neutrino. "If you throw in a fourth neutrino, it changes everything," explains Francis Halzen, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of physics and principal investigator for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a massive detector embedded deep in the ice beneath the South Pole. "Sterile means it doesn't interact with matter itself, although it can dramatically interfere with the way conventional neutrinos do."
The only way to detect a sterile neutrino is to catch it in the act of transforming into one of the other types. The presence of the sterile neutrino has been hinted at by several experiments, including at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1990s and, more recently, at the Daya Bay nuclear reactor facility near Hong Kong. But definitive evidence of the particle's existence has so far eluded scientists.
Now, in a study published today (Aug. 8, 2016) in the journal Physical Review Letters, IceCube researchers may have largely put to rest the notion of this fourth kind of neutrino. In two independent analyses of data from the massive Antarctic detector -- each consisting of a year's worth of data or about 100,000 neutrino events -- the striking feature associated with the sterile neutrino was nowhere to be found, says Halzen.
The analyses were performed using so-called atmospheric neutrinos, neutrinos created when cosmic rays crash into particles in the upper atmosphere of the Earth. The groups conclude that there is 99 percent certainty the eV-mass sterile neutrino hinted at by previous experiments does not exist.
"Like Elvis, people see hints of the sterile neutrino everywhere," says Halzen. "There was this collection of hints, and theorists were convinced it exists."
The groups conducting the analyses scoured the hundreds of thousands of neutrino events that reached the IceCube detector after coursing through the Earth from the sky in the northern hemisphere. Because only neutrinos can travel through the planet unimpeded, the Earth serves as an effective screen, filtering out all other types of particles. IceCube consists of 5,160 light-detecting sensors frozen in crystal clear Antarctic ice more than a mile beneath the South Pole. Neutrinos are detected when they occasionally crash into nuclei, creating a muon and, subsequently, a telltale streak of blue Cherenkov light.
The search conducted by the IceCube teams looked at neutrino events occurring in the 320 GeV to 20 TeV energy range. In this range, Halzen notes, sterile neutrinos would produce a very distinctive signature.
The appeal of a fourth kind of neutrino is that it would help bridge a gap in theory that predicts that some neutrinos from a beam of one type of neutrino emanating from a given source -- be it a nuclear reactor, the sun or the atmosphere -- would change from one kind of neutrino to another as they travel to a distant detector. It would also help solve other cosmological puzzles like the mismatch between matter and antimatter in the universe and the origin of dark matter.
"This new result highlights the versatility of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory," according to Olga Botner, a professor of physics and astronomy at Uppsala University in Sweden and the spokesperson for the IceCube Collaboration. "It is not only an instrument for exploration of the violent universe but allows detailed studies of the properties of the neutrinos themselves."
Failing to detect the elusive particle, however, means physics remains in the dark about the origin of the tiny neutrino mass, or why they have mass in the first place, says Halzen.
The University of Wisconsin/Madison
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Eff%2FTheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond%3Fd%3DyIl2AUoC8zA&width=540&mix=d4e49-astronomy")
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FTheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond%2F%7E4%2FUxUKaTRarZs&width=540&mix=d4e49-astronomy")
In 1999 astronomers focusing on a star at the center of the Milky Way, measured precisely how long it takes the sun to complete one orbit (a galactic year) of our home galaxy: 226 million years. The last time the sun was at that exact spot of its galactic orbit, dinosaurs ruled the Earth. The Solar System is thought to have completed about 2025 orbits during its lifetime or 0.0008 orbit since the origin of humans. When the last red embers of our Sun die out billions of years from now, we will have completed approximately 60 orbits of our home galaxy.
In fact, our Sun's orbit has only happened 20.4 times since the Sun itself formed 4.6 billion years ago. It's estimated that the Sun will continue fusing hydrogen for another 7 billion years. In other words, it only has another 31 orbits it can make before it runs out of fuel.
Is there a genocidal countdown built into the motion of our solar system? Research at Cardiff University suggests that our system's orbit through the Milky Way encounters regular speedbumps - and by "speedbumps," we mean "potentially extinction-causing asteroids."
Our orbit through the Milky Way is not a perfect circle or an ellipse, since the galaxy itself is a landscape of undulating concentrations of mass and complex gravitational fields. As Caleb Scharf observes in The Copernicus Complex, "none of the components of the galaxy are stationary; they, too, are orbiting and drifting in a three-dimensional ballet. The result is that our solar system, like billions of others, must inevitably encounter patches of interstellar space containing the thicker molecular gases and microscopic dust grains of nebulae. It takes tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years to pass through one of these regions.
"This may happen only once every few hundred million years," Scharf adds, "but if modern human civilization had kicked off during such an episode, we would have barely seen more than the nearest stars— certainly not the rest of our galaxy or the cosmos beyond. But could our planetary circumstances have been that different and still produced us? Would more changeable orbits in a planetary system, or bad weather, or passage through interstellar clouds, also thwart the emergence of life in some way?
"Phenomena such as these could be bad news, causing hostile surface environments on a planet. So it's a possibility that the planetary requirements for forming sentient life like us will necessarily always present the senses and minds of such creatures with a specific cosmic tableau, a common window onto the universe."
The visualization of the orbit of the Sun (yellow dot and white curve) below around the Galactic Center (GC) in the last galactic year. The red dots correspond to the positions of the stars studied by the European Southern Observatory in a monitoring program.
If future research confirms a Milky Way galaxy-biodiversity link, it would force scientists to broaden their ideas about what can influence life on Earth. "Maybe it's not just the climate and the tectonic events on Earth," says UK paleontologist Bruce Lieberman. "Maybe we have to start thinking more about the extraterrestrial environment as well."
The surge in cosmic-ray exposure could have both a direct and indirect effect on Earth's organisms, said Lieberman. The radiation could lead to higher rates of genetic mutations in organisms or interfere with their ability to repair DNA damage, potentially leading to diseases like cancer.
William Napier and Janaki Wickramasinghe at Cardiff University completed computer simulations of the motion of the Sun in our outer spiral-arm location in the Milky Way that revealed a regular oscillation through the central galactic plane, where the surrounding dust clouds are the densest. The solar system is a non-trivial object, so its gravitational effects set off a far-reaching planetoid-pinball machine which often ends with comets being hurled into the intruding system.
The sun is about 26,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is about 80,000 to 120,000 light-years across (and less than 7,000 light-years thick). We are located on on one of its spiral arms, out towards the edge. It takes the sun -and our solar system- roughly 226 million years to orbit once around the Milky Way. In this orbit, we are traveling at a velocity of about 155 miles/sec (250 km/sec).
Many of the ricocheted rocks collide with planets on their way through our system, including Earth. Impact craters recorded worldwide show correlations with the ~37 million year-cycle of these journeys through the galactic plane - including the vast impact craters thought to have put an end to the dinosaurs two cycles ago.
Almost exactly two cycles ago, in fact. The figures show that we're very close to another danger zone, when the odds of asteroid impact on Earth go up by a factor of ten. Ten times a tiny chance might not seem like much, but when "Risk of Extinction" is on the table that single order of magnitude can look much more imposing.
You have to remember that ten times a very small number is still a very small number - and Earth has been struck by thousands of asteroids without any exciting extinction events. A rock doesn't just have to hit us, it has to be large enough to survive the truly fearsome forces that cause most to burn up on re-entry.
Professors Medvedev and Melott of the University of Kansas have a different theory based on the same regular motion. As the Sun ventures out "above" the galactic plane, it becomes increasingly exposed to the cosmic ray generating shock front that the Milky Way creates as it ploughs through space. As we get closer to this point of maximum exposure, leaving the shielding of the thick galactic disk behind, the Kansas researchers hold that the increasing radiation destroys many higher species, forcing another evolutionary epoch. This theory also matches in time with the dinosaur extinction.
Either way, don't go letting your VISA bill run up just yet. "Very close" in astronomical terms is very, very different to "close" in homo-sapien time.
The characteristic spiral arms of the Milky Way regions where stars and gas are a little closer together -- waves of higher density than elsewhere in our galaxy's disc. Their additional gravity is normally too weak to alter a star's path by much, but if the star's orbital speed happens to match the speed at which the spiral arm is itself rotating, then the extra force has more time to take effect.
Simulations completed by Rok Roskar of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, show that a lucky star can ride the wave for 10,000 light years or more. Our sun is an example, with some measurements implying that the sun is richer in heavy elements than the average star in our neighborhood, suggesting it was born in the busy central zone of the galaxy, where stellar winds and exploding stars enrich the cosmic brew more than in the galactic suburbs. The gravitational buffeting the solar system received then might also explain why Sedna, a large iceball in the extremities of the solar system, travels on a puzzling, enormously elongated orbit.
Today's Most Popular
The Daily Galaxy via The Copernicus Complex, cardiff.ac.uk and newscientist.com
Image credit: with thanks to ucl.ac.uk
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FTheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond%2F%7E4%2FEGtbVB13iBw&width=540&mix=d4e49-astronomy")
“The first person to live to be 1,000 years old is certainly alive today …whether they realize it or not, barring accidents and suicide, most people now 40 years or younger can expect to live for centuries,” claims Cambridge University geneticist Aubrey de Grey. "The only difference between my work and the work of the whole medical profession," de Grey adds, "is that I think we're in striking distance of keeping people so healthy that at 90 they'll carry on waking up in the same physical state as they were at the age of 30, and their probability of not waking up one morning will be no higher than it was at the age of 30."
The image above is one of 100 cast-iron life-size human figures by British sculptor Anthony Gormley that explore the place of humanity in nature. Gormley who has created and installed them high in the Alps, scattered over 150 sq km (58 sq miles) of some of Austria's most dramatic scenery.
“I just don't think [immortality] is possible,” countered Sherwin Nuland, a former professor of surgery at the Yale School of Medicine. “Aubrey and the others who talk of greatly extending lifespan are oversimplifying the science and just don't understand the magnitude of the task. His plan will not succeed. Were it to do so, it would undermine what it means to be human.”
Perhaps de Gray is way too optimistic, but others have joined the search for a virtual fountain of youth. In fact, a growing number of scientists, doctors, geneticists and nanotech experts—many with impeccable academic credentials—are insisting that there is no hard reason why ageing can't be dramatically slowed or prevented altogether. Not only is it theoretically possible, they argue, but a scientifically achievable goal that can and should be reached in time to benefit those alive today.
“I am working on immortality,” says Michael Rose, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine, who has achieved breakthrough results extending the lives of fruit flies. “Twenty years ago the idea of postponing aging, let alone reversing it, was weird and off-the-wall. Today there are good reasons for thinking it is fundamentally possible.”
Even the US government finds the field sufficiently promising to fund some of the research. Federal funding for “the biology of ageing”, excluding work on ageing-specific diseases like heart failure and cancer has been running at about $2.4 billion a year, according to the National Institute of Ageing, part of the National Institutes of Health.
So far, the most intriguing results have been spawned by the genetics labs of bigger universities, where anti-ageing scientists have found ways to extend live spans of a range of organisms—including mammals. But genetic research is not the only field that may hold the key to eternity.
“There are many, many different components of ageing and we are chipping away at all of them,” said Robert Freitas at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, a non-profit, nanotech group in Palo Alto, California. “It will take time and, if you put it in terms of the big developments of modern technology, say the telephone, we are still about 10 years off from Alexander Graham Bell shouting to his assistant through that first device. Still, in the near future, say the next two to four decades, the disease of ageing will be cured.”
But not everyone thinks ageing can or should be cured. Some say that humans weren't meant to live forever, regardless of whether or not we actually can.
It's interesting that Nuland first says he doesn't think it will work but then adds that if it does, it will undermine humanity. So, which is it? Is it impossible, or are the skeptics just hoping it is?
After all, we already have overpopulation, global warming, limited resources and other issues to deal with, so why compound the problem by adding immortality into the mix.
But anti-ageing enthusiasts argue that as our perspectives change and science and technology advance exponentially, new solutions will emerge. Space colonization, for example, along with dramatically improved resource management, could resolve the concerns associated with long life. They reason that if the Universe goes on seemingly forever—much of it presumably unused—why not populate it?
However, anti-ageing crusaders are coming up against an increasingly influential alliance of bioconservatives who want to restrict research seeking to “unnaturally” prolong life. Some of these individuals were influential in persuading President Bush in 2001 to restrict federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. They oppose the idea of life extension and anti-ageing research on ethical, moral and ecological grounds.
Leon Kass, the former head of Bush's Council on Bioethics, insists that “the finitude of human life is a blessing for every human individual”. Bioethicist Daniel Callahan of the Garrison, New York-based Hastings Centre, agrees: “There is no known social good coming from the conquest of death.”
Maybe they're right, but then why do we as humans strive so hard to prolong our lives in the first place? Maybe growing old, getting sick and dying is just a natural, inevitable part of the circle of life, and we may as well accept it.
"But it's not inevitable, that's the point," de Grey says. "At the moment, we're stuck with this awful fatalism that we're all going to get old and sick and die painful deaths. There are a 100,000 people dying each day from age-related diseases. We can stop this carnage. It's simply a matter of deciding that's what we should be doing."
The Daily Galaxy via worldhealth.net and BBC News
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FTheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond%2F%7E4%2F00smjmGlbIM&width=540&mix=d4e49-astronomy")
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2F236x%2F8a%2Fb9%2Fbc%2F8ab9bca724a83eb5cf88fa7ae1d78e0a.jpg&width=540&mix=9aae6-pin-gaia")
Deer fly (Chrysops sp.) collected in Thousand Islands National Park, Ontario, Canada, and photographed at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (sample ID: BIOUG19036-G06; specimen record: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_RecordView?processid=CNTIF2427-15; BIN: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_BarcodeCluster?clusteruri=BOLD:ACU8282)
![]("http://www.spiegel.de/images/image-1031232-thumbsmall-adnl.jpg")
Investigators in Germany often know little about the crimes committed by German Islamists who have traveled to Syria. Three returnees have broken their silence -- providing a wealth of information and angering members of the radical scene. ![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2F236x%2F36%2F7b%2F70%2F367b708ee1d405167b679626f2f298b1.jpg&width=540&mix=574f9-pin-astro")
A ground level view at Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), showing the Apollo 14 (Spacecraft 110/Lunar Module 8/Saturn 509) space vehicle leaving the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Image Credit: NASA !["donut]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Finsider.si.edu%2Fwordpress%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F08%2Fdonut-by-Javcon117-630x354.jpg&width=540&mix=42dfe-culture")
Matching bite marks in food at a crime scene to a suspect's teeth is often a stretch. Saliva deposited on the food and subjected to DNA analysis, however, has the potential to strengthen the positive identification of those present at a crime. (Flickr photo by Jacovn117*)
Bite marks on a homicide victim's skin is not an unusual discovery. Teeth marks from a criminal also may occasionally be found on food at the crime scene. Once a suspect is apprehended detectives may begin trying to match a mold of the suspect's teeth with impressions left on the victim's skin and on food. With luck, a good match might help prove a suspect's presence at the crime, but it's often a stretch.
“In bite-mark analysis impressions are not always unique enough for positive identification,” says Sara C. Zapico, research collaborator in the Anthropology Department of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. “Even with the recent use of computer matching, distortions of bite impressions left on skin or a food item often make a match impossible.”
During biting, however, something more than bite marks is left behind that also can link a suspect to a crime: saliva. Floating in saliva are skin cells from the cheek interior and white blood cells (leukocytes); each cell contains an individual's unique DNA.
!["teeth"]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Finsider.si.edu%2Fwordpress%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F07%2F309968625_c75f13966f_o-630x473.jpg&width=540&mix=42dfe-culture")
During biting, saliva is often deposited by the teeth and lips in enough quantity to allow its later collection and use in DNA typing. (Flickr photo by Gregg O'Connell)
During biting, saliva is usually deposited on an object or on a victim's skin by the teeth and lips. It usually occurs in enough quantity to allow its collection and DNA typing, Zapico says.
In a new study in the Archives of Oral Biology, Zapico and co-author Sofia T. Menéndez of the University of Oviedo in Spain, show that it is quite possible to recover and isolate DNA from saliva on bitten foods, even some 15 hours after the saliva has dried.
“Quantity and purity of the DNA often depends on the food type,” Zapico says. Few previous studies have shown great success in isolating human DNA from foods displaying bite marks.
In their study three volunteers bit samples of Manchego cheese, chocolate doughnuts and Fuji apples. To replicate crime scene conditions, the food was left untouched at room temperature for 15 to 16 hours before it was collected and frozen at -15 Celsius. Next the food was taken to a lab, thawed, and the area around the bite marks was wiped with a sterile cotton swab moistened with distilled water. A second dry swab was used to collect the moisture that remained from the first swab. The swabs were then sealed in sterile tubes.
Next Zapico and Menéndez isolated the DNA applying a silica-based procedure (a simple and straightforward technique, less laborious than the classical Phenol-Chloroform DNA extraction and avoids toxicity). By conventional polymerase chain reaction, they specifically amplified two constant genes from the DNA, GAPDH and RPL22, commonly known as housekeeper genes, which are required to maintain basic cellular function. These genes are similar to those used to define an individual's unique nuclear DNA.
!["bitten]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Finsider.si.edu%2Fwordpress%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F07%2F12485177343_125d239b0d_o-630x421.jpg&width=540&mix=42dfe-culture")
Ample saliva was collected from the apples in the study, but acidic compounds in the apple's juice deteriorated the DNA while it was at room temperature. No quality DNA was amplified from the apple. (Flickr photo by Erich Ferdinand)
“The cheese and doughnut preserved the best quality of nuclear DNA, highest in cheese,” Zapico says. “The cheese was solid and firm and saliva stayed on its surface and because the doughnut was porous it absorbed the saliva. Ample saliva was collected from the apple but acidic compounds in its juice deteriorated the DNA while it was at room temperature. No quality DNA was amplified from the apple.”
The researchers also detected and amplified human mitochondrial DNA from all the food types, being the first research study to do so. While it's not as useful as nuclear DNA in identifying individuals, mitochondrial DNA can be valuable in establishing matrilineal kinships in forensic investigations, molecular anthropology, biographic ancestry and human genetics.
“One of the improvements in our paper was the amount of salivary DNA we recovered from our samples because we used two swabs, both wet and dry—the double-swab technique,” Zapico says.
Different factors affect the quantity and quality of saliva that might be collected at a crime scene, the researchers say. For example, a person's salivary stimulation prior to a bite, and the size of an individual's salivary glands. Time of day may also be a factor as some studies indicate saliva flow increases slowly in the morning, peaks in the afternoon and is lowest during sleep. In this test the volunteers bit the food in early morning.
According to Zapico and Menéndez, their new work is a clear demonstration that should the physical attributes of a bite mark at a crime scene warrant scrutiny, collecting and isolating salivary DNA from the bite may also be successful. Combined, these two forms of evidence increase the possibility correctly identifying a criminal.
Zapico is hopeful that soon the techniques used in this study might be accepted as evidence in an actual courtroom trial. “Now we need to validate what we have done with more work. Our next steps will be using more types of foods and exploring broader scenarios than those in this paper. We need to get moving on more studies,” she says.
The post Crime bite: DNA on half-eaten food may someday send crooks to jail appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.
Hey! Sorry it took so long to answer, you made me think… a lot :)
I've thought about doing something like that, i just dont feel like i've got enough to share atm. For the most part I use After Effects, but i want to mess around with 3D a bit.
![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2F66.media.tumblr.com%2F4c2b362c895bf518eff553af11f96494%2Ftumblr_objzp0oJDI1rlkdy0o1_500.gif&width=540&mix=219b9-gifs")
344
The Hill (blog) | FDA's cognitive dissonance on smoking The Hill (blog) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently launched “This Free Life”—a first-of-its-kind anti-smoking campaign aimed directly at the LGBT community. The crusade reflects data showing that members of the LGBT community smoke at approximately twice ... and more » |
![]("http://65.media.tumblr.com/e0831270ae502ee9071ba2d7d2575012/tumblr_oblnagCqY41tnemwao1_500.jpg")
I'm so excited to announce that copies of “Overview” will ship one month from today in the UK! While I can't wait for everyone to see the finished product, I am most excited to see how the new perspective offered by this work can change and challenge the way we think about our role on this planet. Every copy sold in advance of the launch will be hugely impactful to bring this perspective to more people, not to mention the price on Amazon is more than 30% off at the moment! If you are able support our efforts, here is the link to pre-order:
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
A new wildlife photo website that Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, launched recently is called Camera CATalogue. “We've launched this with our partners at Zooniverse as a platform that houses tens of thousands of Panthera's camera trap photos and engages with citizen scientists and wildlife lovers around the world, asking that they help identify the big cats and other fascinating animals pictured in these photos,” says Ross Pitman, Leopard Monitoring Coordinator for Panthera. “The idea is that the more we know about the number of big cats and their prey populations, where they live and roam, and how our efforts are helping to protect them using these images, the better.”
Fancying myself as a bit of a wildlife spotter, especially in Africa, where I have visited more than three dozen sanctuaries, including the iconic Kruger, Okavango, Hwange, and Serengeti national parks, I tried out Camera CATalogue. It's quite addictive, and I had to tear myself away after identifying a hundred or more animals. It's also fascinating to “observe” what animals get up to when people are not around.
Ross Pitman was kind enough to answer a few questions about Camera CATalogue and how this kind of citizen science helps conservation, even if those of us who engage with it are on the other side of the world.
DB: How does this citizen science project help protect big cats? It's presumably not only about monitoring species and numbers of cats, but also prey base and threats (vehicles and people) in their range?
Camera CATalogue has two main objectives with regards to monitoring wild cats across vast landscapes using camera traps. First, it's a platform that provides people from around the world (even those that have never visited Africa) with the opportunity to engage with wildlife and actively contribute to wildlife conservation. Second, and by no means less important, Camera CATalogue allows Panthera's scientists to monitor larger areas than ever before, but without the time-consuming challenge of identifying every species within each camera trap photo. By engaging the wider community, Camera CATalogue helps us identify animals more accurately, simply because each image is viewed by so many people.
Since we're now able to camera-trap across far larger areas and still accurately process all the data, we're able to ask many more questions and provide many more answers relating to wildlife conservation. A suite of important questions center around indices of prey abundance and prey quality. Is there enough prey around to support carnivores in the area? And if not, what are the primary causes of prey decline? These prey-focused questions might generate more questions related to human pressure, perhaps from poachers or subsistence farmers. How are the animals in the area—both carnivores and herbivores—responding to human disturbance? Are animals actively avoiding densely populated areas, and what are the conservation implications for these animals or the financial repercussions (through ecotourism) for people? We can also go further and ask far broader questions about how wildlife use their habitat at a landscape scale and how they interact with each other. These questions have significant conservation implications and importance, and need answers soon if we're to curb the precipitous declines faced by many wild cats, and wildlife more generally.
Camera CATalogue provides a means of making research more efficient, and therefore, more effective. This ultimately allows scientists to focus on more pressing conservation concerns—with the added benefit of hopefully encouraging budding citizen scientists to pursue a career in wildlife conservation.
!["integtime=1535]("http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/08/Leopard_2014_Credit-Ross-Pitman-Panthera-Siyafunda-600x397.jpg")
How many photos are in the database? How many cameras are used? How are they secured?
Camera CATalogue's database currently holds around 160,000 images. This first batch of images represents a tenth of the total images we need identified in the coming weeks and months. It's easy to see why we so desperately need the help of thousands of citizen scientists across the world! In addition, we are constantly expanding our research footprint across the world, and usually take on a few new surveillance sites every year.
In terms of cameras and their setup, we typically use 80 PantheraCams (a Panthera custom-made camera trap) set up in pairs across roads or animal paths in order to photograph both flanks of an animal as it walks past our PantheraCams. Some animals, like spotted cats, have unique coat patterns, and photographing both flanks enables us to identify each individual. We then use this information to run complex analyses to robustly determine their population densities across the survey area, which gives us the data so urgently needed to inform sound, science-based management and conservation decisions.
One major challenge with using camera traps to monitor wildlife is that our PantheraCams are often stolen, either by animals (like elephants!) or by people. To reduce theft, we secure the PantheraCams to trees or metal posts (hammered deep into the ground) using cable ties or bungee cord and connect the PantheraCams to steel cables that are linked to the tree or post. Although not 100% secure, we have noticed a reduction in theft—primarily from elephants who find it annoying to walk around with a PantheraCam that's still attached to a metal post.
!["Credit:]("http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/08/V6-Camera-trap-set-up_Indonesia_Credit-Wai-Ming-WongPanthera-600x402.jpg")
How many photos remain to be sorted and identified?
Camera CATalogue was launched on August 4th, 2016, and in the first 24 hours over 8,000 citizen scientists cumulatively identified 170,000 images! Each image is shown to 10 citizen scientists to ensure identification accuracy, which means this current database is approximately 10 percentcomplete.
What have you already learned from this project?
The biggest take-home message from the launch of Camera CATalogue was in realizing how much people enjoy identifying wildlife, and are willing to spend their own time to help our conservation efforts. It's a fantastic feeling to know we have the support and assistance of so many citizen scientists around the world.
What do you still hope to find out?
The biggest what-if would be to know if this initial interest in Camera CATalogue will be sustained. There is so much data to process that we could use this level of response to constantly assist our scientists. Our PantheraCams take such amazing photos though, so we're hopeful that citizen scientists will flock to Camera Catalogue for a long time to come.
Do you have any funny/unusual photos you can share?
One of the most amazing photographs taken by the PantheraCams shows a genet (a small mongoose/weasel-like mammal) on the back of a rhino. The genet proceeded to hitch a ride on the rhino for quite some time! It's these sorts of species interactions that make camera trapping such an amazing surveillance tool.
!["integtime=1536]("http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/08/Genet-on-rhino-featured-image_Credit-Panthera-Ezemvelo-KZN-Wildlife-Wildlife-ACT.-In-some-cases-camera-traps-document-fascinating-interactions-between-species-in-this-case-a-genet-riding-on-the-back-of-a-rhino-600x487.jpg")
How can this citizen science project be used to educate people and help them become better stewards of the planet, even if they live half a world away from where these photos are made?
By allowing citizen scientists the opportunity to actively participate in wildlife research, Camera CATalogue will hopefully raise people's excitement about conserving these precious species and the habitats in which they live. Even for those that have previously visited these wild places, Camera CATalogue provides a way of re-experiencing the magic of viewing animals in the wild. This constant engagement with wildlife will help to engender a sense of ownership and compassion towards animals and ultimately generate a more conservation-aware community.
Several months ago, MRCTV sent a camera crew to the southern counties of West Virginia to document the impact of the EPA regulations on the coal industry and the local communities that have historically relied on it for survival. What the team found was devastating.
The effect of shuttered coal mines and the loss of thousands of coal jobs has trickled down into nearly every facet of these communities, crippling local businesses, destroying the housing market and forcing desperate families from their homes. Thousands are without work, while still thousands more live under the constant threat of job loss and bankruptcy. Local charities struggle to meet the needs around them, only to be quickly overwhelmed. While the media are focusing on "climate change," hardworking Americans are left to wonder how they will keep the lights on in a house they're struggling to hold on to.
Through a compelling series of up-close footage and brutally honest interviews, "Collateral Damage" will expose in stark detail the real, human impact of President Obama's promised and delivered assault on the coal industry, and on the hardworking Americans and their families in Central Appalachia.
This is a true American story about real American people. And we need more Americans like you to help us get it out.
You know, the irony is that what's actually hurt coal is not any EPA rules as much as it is any really cheap natural gas that has come from fracking, a new technology that we developed that allowed the United States to become the leading producer of natural gas in the world. And those gas-fired plants -- natural gas-fired plants are now so much more efficient that even if there were no rules whatsoever, coal would be replaced by natural gas in terms of generating electricity. Natural gas is a little cleaner than coal, and what we are saying in the same way that natural gas has replaced a lot coal-fired plants, well, let's see if we can get that same kind of progress on solar and wind and, you know, hydro and other clean energies that are sustainable over the long term.
And what we to then do is invest in those communities that used to have a lot of coal miners, which was a tough, dirty job. Let's retrain them so that they're the ones who are installing wind turbines. Let's retrain them so they are getting jobs in the solar industry. And that's the nature of American innovaton and American change. We used to have a lot of folks who worked on farms. Farms became really efficient here in the United States, and what we did then is said, let's set up public schools and let's set up community colleges and land-grant colleges and let's have them work in the factories. And then now we're having them work in the digital world.
And you know, we can't abandon those communities, and there's still some market for coal. And I'm still investing, by the way, in technologies that could potentially pull the carbon out of coal so that -- there's a lot of coal here in the United States as there is in China and India. If we could figure out a way to do that cleanly, that should be part of our smart energy mix. But we can't stand still. America never has, it never will.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
![]("http://www.spiegel.de/images/image-1032035-thumbsmall-lxxl.jpg")
After agreeing to help the European Union control the flow of migrants heading north, the Turkish government now feels empowered to use the deal as leverage. Europe must now find an alternative to its agreement with Ankara, lest it subject itself to blackmail. !["Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f170260%2fglitterbomb"]("http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/qWuBh3rzFprSPczcxXZi6cMIwZw=/575x323/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F170260%2FGlitterbomb.jpg")
LONDON — To win Robot Wars, you need to outlast the other robots in your heat, make it through to the final and then crush your opponent in a fierce one-on-one fight to the death.
But that's not the only way you can win.
On Sunday's episode, the pink blade-wielding robot Glitterbomb — which came complete with a feisty little girl called April — may not have won the battle, but it was definitely the people's champion.
"I chose the colour scheme and I also chose the design," said April in the pre-battle interview. "It's a pink robot that's all glittery with a belt around its waist, and the axe is really spiky so it can dig in robots." Read more...
More about Uk, Reaction, Twitter, Bbc, and Robot
!["IceCube_Aurora_0"]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailygalaxy.com%2F.a%2F6a00d8341bf7f753ef01b8d20e7496970c-800wi&width=540&mix=d4e49-astronomy" "\"IceCube_Aurora_0\"")
!["Dinosaur_eating_milky_way_1_14008002b05001ae"]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailygalaxy.com%2F.a%2F6a00d8341bf7f753ef01bb0927d13e970d-800wi&width=540&mix=d4e49-astronomy" "\"Dinosaur_eating_milky_way_1_14008002b05001ae\"")
!["Sun_in_orbit_around_Galactic_Centre"]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailygalaxy.com%2F.a%2F6a00d8341bf7f753ef01b7c88485a1970b-800wi&width=540&mix=d4e49-astronomy" "\"Sun_in_orbit_around_Galactic_Centre\"")
!["_48570055_gormley464]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailygalaxy.com%2F.a%2F6a00d8341bf7f753ef01bb0927ab8a970d-800wi&width=540&mix=d4e49-astronomy" "\"_48570055_gormley464")